Chet Gecko goes undercover in latest adventure
By Jolie Jean Cotton
THIS GUM FOR HIRE, By Bruce Hale; Harcourt Brace, ages 8-12, $14
In his Chet Gecko mysteries, former Hawai'i resident Bruce Hale craftily captures that secret world kids collectively create when adults aren't around. These are engaging whodunits for middle readers, full of sarcastic wit and humor. Chet himself is a smart-aleck fourth-grader with the same sardonic delivery of Raymond Chandler's "Philip Marlow." Chet's a hero with many flaws, so he's easy to identify with.
"It's also kind of making fun of the detective and the whole mystery concept," author/illustrator Hale said, "so that kids who don't like to take things too seriously have plenty to appreciate."
Last summer, after living nearly 20 years in Hawai'i, Hale moved his family from Makiki back to California.
"It'll be much easier for me to do national speaking engagements and book promotions," Hale told me back then. Hale's prediction came true.
Earlier this year, Hale completed a nearly 30-city book tour that, in eight weeks, took him from San Diego, Calif. to Vancouver, British Columbia.
In the just-released sixth book in the Chet Gecko series, "This Gum for Hire," Chet is hired by school bully Herman the Gila Monster to find out why players on their Emerson Hickey Elementary football team are disappearing. Preparations for the big game against Pestadena Elementary are underway. Emerson's football coach thinks Herman is responsible for the missing players. If his teammates don't show up quick, Herman will be kicked off the squad.
Chet's sidekick, Natalie Attired, a "spiffy mockingbird with a detective sense sharp enough to cut cheese" comes up with an undercover plan to search for clues: she'll become a cheerleader and the less-than-athletic gecko can join the football team. Reluctantly, Chet agrees and he's off to see the coach:
"Coach 'Beef' Stroganoff put the meat in meat-head. A massive, crew-cut groundhog, he was as charming and graceful as a monster-truck rally on a muddy day. Although Coach Stroganoff had a tendency to hibernate when football season wasn't going well, he ruled the gym like a furry emperor."
After losing several players, a desperate Coach Stroganoff accepts Chet's offer to join the team. The out-of-shape gecko physically pays the price to conduct his undercover snooping.
Suspects are plentiful both on and off the practice field. There's the school nurse, Marge Supial, who's still reeling from her ill-fated romance with Coach Stroganoff. Maybe she's behind an act of revenge? Then there's Buford the skunk, an angry water boy who didn't make the team. Could his jealousy be the motive behind the disappearances?
I won't spoil the ending, but I can promise it will both surprise and satisfy. Hale's comical black and white drawings are scattered throughout the book's 115 pages.
"Harcourt seems willing to have me go on with this series for as long as the readers and I are still having fun with it," Hale said. "At the moment, we're talking about Book 10, which is tentatively entitled, 'Murder, My Tweet.'
"We've got plans to do a combination cookbook/detective manual, too," Hale added. "This combines Chet's two favorite pursuits: mysteries and food."
The next book in the series, "The Malted Falcon," should be released early next year.
